Musings, Reflections, Reviews, Opinions, and More

Not a lot going on this week in the land of Tim’s TV shows, with only half of them airing a new episode. On the plus side, that means I’ve been watching a lot of 30 Rock. Probably too much, in fact. Yes, folks, I’ve nearly caught up to the present episode, so look for current episodes of 30 Rock to join the review list either next week or the week after.

Community – Premiers 2/7/13

That’s right, Community has a premier date! Unfortunately, it’s not for several months. Dammit, NBC, get your act together!

Go On – Next Episode Airs 11/13

I thought there was a new episode this week, but apparently not. Look for its return in a couple weeks.

How I Met Your Mother – Next Episode Airs 11/5

This week’s episode was pre-empted for coverage of hurricane Sandy.

Modern Family – “Yard Sale” – 4 out of 5

There wasn’t anything that stood out as phenomenal in this episode, but everything in it worked well together. Without having to worry about Lily or carry a major storyline on their own, Cam and Mitch – actually, I’ll get back to that in a moment, because I just realized there wasn’t really a main storyline in this episode. A yard sale (thus the title) that Luke and Manny are putting on get all of the characters together, and from there a bunch of minor storylines are constantly interweaving with one another.

So getting back to Cam and Mitch, although they had a storyline mostly to themselves, they weren’t being asked to sustain a pillar of the episode on their own, as with the last couple weeks. Rather, they got to play color parts in the tapestry of the episode, and it worked really well. Really, if any character was having a driving plot moment, it was Alex, but even her bit with her possibly gay boyfriend was just the foremost part of a much larger painting.

This wasn’t an episode that advances any plots, but it was like a Saturday afternoon: a nice time out enjoying the company of good friends we already know.

The Office – Next Episode Airs 11/8

Revolution – “Sex and Drugs” – 3.5 out of 5

This was Revolution‘s best episode so far. It still wasn’t great, still not convincing, but it was a step in the right direction. Two major things were going on: one, we got to see some of Aaron’s post-blackout backstory, and two, Charlie, Miles, and the gang were trying to get out of the grasp of a tyrant with their morals intact.

Part of what was great about this episode was that it gave the characters a situation in which the response wasn’t straightforward. For whatever reason, Charlie seems to exist on the extremes of emotion, but at least we got to see her progress a little bit as a character. All of the present action was built on top of some moral hypothetical situations you’re likely to encounter in any intro philosophy class, but it worked pretty well.

Aaron was actually really intriguing. For most of the series so far he’s been just sort of a hang on character, there but not really consequential. And that, as it turns out, is his issue. He’s a fish out of water in a post-internet world, and watching him struggle to adapt is actually really interesting. This episode introduced complexity to that emotion that we haven’t seen yet. He’s actually a character I sort of care about going forward.

Ok, so Miles is still a dick and Charlie’s a little too naive, but there was enough going right in this episode to keep it pretty entertaining.

Survivor – 4 out of 5 (I think – see below)

Well, this one was a little tricky because my TV reception was cutting in and out really badly the entire episode. But I did see what mattered: Penner saved himself through a brilliant play of his hidden immunity idol. No idea how we got to that point, but the result was pretty spectacular. Sorry, folks, but that’s all I really have to say for the moment. I may get around to re-watching this episode online, but don’t count on it. The tribes merged, crazy stuff ensued, and I’m fine with RC leaving because she was pretty annoying anyways.